Koronin wrote:Andrey Amador: I picked him with my heart not my head. He's one of my favorite riders plus if Movistar actually doesn't send one of their 3 main GC riders to the Giro, that will make Amador the race leader for the Giro.

Logan Owen: First year at WT and I think he has potential to improve his points.

I agree with your Owen pick. I love Amador as well and was hoping he could ride the Giro too, but with the Movistar roster being the way it is and the importance of the TDF this year I think they'll make him ride the TDF and skip the Giro. I expect Amador, Bennati, Erviti/Rojas and then 2 of Sutterlin, Valls, Soler, De Le Parte, Anacona, and Oliveira to ride it. Since I don't have Sepulveda on that list (although he could ride the TDF) I expect him and Fernandez to lead at the Giro+ Betancur so I chose Sepulveda as a relatively rare pick. Him getting the chance to lead at early season races+ the change in teams clinched it for me.

With my other rare picks (9 picks) here is my rationale for them:Krister Hagen (1 pick): He's the oldest rider on a team of young riders, and with August Jensen leaving for ICA he should have more freedom. Dion Smith (7): Rode the TDF last year and has the potential to capitalise on that. An all-round rider who has an ok sprint who could place highly across the Europe Tour races.Vyacheslav Kuznetsov (2): Hopefully by the end of the year I can spell his name without having to double check it. With Kristoff gone he has the potential to lead Katusha at the Classics.Brendan Canty (4): Finished his first GT, National RR suits him and he could lead EF at TDU. I expect him to have a good year (around 300+ points).Matteo Malucelli (2): Seems to have a good sprint and he could breakthrough this year on the Italian racing scene. However there are a few riders he might be behind in Androni's pecking order.Roman Maikin (4): Might have to play 2nd fiddle to Shilov and Porsev's sprints but he scored 341 in 2016, so being part of a strong squad could nab him a similar total this year.Rok Korosec (1): Was considering Dusan Rajovic but decided Korosec had a good sprint too and might have more opportunities. Harm Vanhoucke (2): Now that riders like Hamilton, Hindley, Cras, Powless, Sivakov, Lambrecht, Fabbro and Bernal are WT I think he might be the best climber/stage racer in the U23 ranks (Costa excepted). I expect him to get a similar points total to Lambrecht in 2017 (maybe even better with less competition and a favourable WC RR course).Ivan Sosa (9): Seems to be a huge talent.Lorentz Kron (1): Finished the Tour of Denmark and had good results in U23 races such as Frankfurt and GW. WIll be interesting to follow.Enzo Wouters (6): Has a sprint that allows him to be consistent in smaller races. Would not be surprised if he breaks through this year.Kenneth Van Rooy (1): Seems to have been around for a while and always regarded as a talent, and if he rides the Classics should get WT points for finishing them. Hopefully that strength translates to the later season. Kicking myself for not picking Capiot as a Topsport rider though.

In all i'm not so confident in my team, but hope to be around the top 50 mark again (and would love to lead again at some point).

Hi, still haven't had time to look through the thread, but I've caught up on my PMs and have a couple of corrections:

- team Eric10 got overlooked when it was sent in; I was alerted to the message submitting the team that was time stamped on January 2nd, before the initial deadline. I've added it to the spreadsheet that I linked to earlier and added the riders to the popularity tab.

- team drebelo sent revisions before the deadline as well but I accidentally recopied their original team and therefore didn't make any revisions at all. I've made the correct changes and altered the riders in the popularity tab.

I had also said earlier that there were 129 teams - this may have been pointed out on the thread but the attacking vikings didn't play this year but were included as their line on the rankings sheet was coded to read the asian's team total. That reduced the total to 128, but with the addition of Eric10's overlooked team the tally is at 129 in fact.

Please continue to send me PMs if I've overlooked anything or made any errors.

Lol, my only unique pick is JJ Gojas Gil. TBH, I have no idea, why I've picked him, but yes, there is a good chance he'll have at least better season with the same race programme (especially after a bad Giro).My other rare pick is Matti Breschel and I believe many of you had him in sight but just opted for different riders.

David Arroyo riding in Portugal. I hope he will score more points than last year, maybe over 200.

I love african riders, so the other two are from Africa, of course. Charles Kagimu, the young star from Uganda that will ride for Bike Aid this year. He will score more points, for sure (last year he got 3 finishing top 10 in the Tour of Quanzhou Bay as a stagiare. And the young argelian star Hamza Masouri. Last year he won the three Junior African Championships (Road Race, Time Trial and Team Time Trial). He is really young, but he will have great opportunities to score with the new argelian team Sovac - Natura4ever. Of course, his price was 0.

I am pretty happy how my team fared in comparison to everyone else’s. I am most worried about missing Alaphilippe, I thought about him but could not believe with confidence that he could bump up a good 500 points that would justify his selection. But reflecting now I think that was a mistake as he will likely dominate the one day races and pick up a lot of hilly stage wins.

There is also a perception of risk around Moscon that I was not aware of. Hoping that someone is willing to summarise or share a link about his thing with Reichenbqch. Incidentally, he is also in my team.

Finally, Geraint Thomas. Surprised that he was not heavily picked. Before the Froome doping news, he was granted a free role at the Tour. That’s a top ten right there. Now with Froome being busted, who else but him to lead!? On top of that, he is a big threat for one week races. I think he is set for a bumper year! Sure, there’s Richie Porte, but he was priced higher and he has a high tendency for injury.

Some of my relatively uniques are:

Warren Barguil, he had a monster TDF and now he has his own team. Obvious!Caleb Ewan, fastest sprinter around with another year under his belt.Jarlinson Pantano, to lead Trek in long races.Jack Haig, same comment as Barguil except for the Vuelta and a more understated enthusiasm.Benoit Cosnefroy, u23 champions are must haves.Jaime Castrillo, no record on CQRanking but signs a contract with Movistar!? They must know something.

I'velo wrote:Jaime Castrillo, no record on CQRanking but signs a contract with Movistar!? They must know something.

I have 4 words for you: OSPINA HERNANDEZ Argiro Alonso

In case more words are needed, this guy was in exactly the same situation as Castrillo and was selected by a large number of us in the 2013 game, probably with exactly your reasoning. He had 9 race days, finished only 5 of them, and had a highest finish of 69th. According to PCS, his entire career since then is 2 stages, one unfinished, of the Tour of Mexico.

Gigs_98 wrote:Rosa:I'm actually not sure why I even have to explain why I picked him since I expected him to be one of the most popular riders, but turns out he is not. I mean, he is still in lots of teams but in my opinion he is a no brainer. He had two great seasons at Astana, then went to Sky, and as it's always the case with Sky, he had problems in his first season there. But the same happened to Landa and Kwiat and both exploded in their 2nd year in England. Ofc there is never a guarantee that he'll be great but I see riders I'm way less sold on in every team.

3. riders which I think are bad picks:Sagan:I get that he didn't have a perfect 2017 season and was often super unlucky, but with what 2018 score can you call him a good pick. Normally a rider needs to get at least 50% more points than in his previous season, said differently Sagan almost has to be as good as in his superb 2016 campaign, and all that without a WC route that suits him (mind you, those are 400 points he won't get this year. 400!!!). Could he still do that? Yeah, but it's not likely. And if he gets injured in this spring your whole team basically goes to waste. That's simply a risk not worth taking.

Ok, so reason Rosa isn't popular (or at least the reason I didn't pick him) is because of the nature of his last season. Rosa's level throughout was very good. He was never wildly out of form like Kwaitkowski or ill fortune (literally ill) in the case of Landa, who never quite recovered from that. It was that he was just a domestique in every race. He put in some really strong performances at the Giro working for Landa in breaks, for example. And I don't think that is going to change. I mean, he's good enough to top-10 most ardennes races, but why should he get priority over Poels, Kwiat, Henao or even de la cruz? Some of those can win the races Rosa can do only 'well' in. Likewise for one week Tours. I don't doubt his level but I doubt his relavence at a team like Sky. I suppose this year the roster is a bit freer so he may have more chance at some smaller races and stage hunting at the Giro (depending on the Froome situation) but Rosa really needs to move teams, and soon.

Sagan is a very risky pick but he's been at the top for so long and yet has never really broken through (during the spring). He's 28 this year and should be at the top of his game so maybe finally he can prudce consistent results in monuments (soemhting he enevr managed, not even in 2016 where he only finished inside the top 10 once). If you're asking where I expect him to find the points he'll miss in the Worlds, it's there.

So my most expensive guy is also my most unique pick(only 2 people chose him). Did any of you guys considered to pick Roglic and do you think he is a bad pick or he might give me some big points that no one else will get?

I'velo wrote:Jaime Castrillo, no record on CQRanking but signs a contract with Movistar!? They must know something.

I have 4 words for you: OSPINA HERNANDEZ Argiro Alonso

In case more words are needed, this guy was in exactly the same situation as Castrillo and was selected by a large number of us in the 2013 game, probably with exactly your reasoning. He had 9 race days, finished only 5 of them, and had a highest finish of 69th. According to PCS, his entire career since then is 2 stages, one unfinished, of the Tour of Mexico.

I remember Ospina! Wasnt he the last of a generation of super-hyped Colombians?

Wow, I gotta say that I'm honestly surprised that I'm at top of the popularity table. I thought I would have left out some of the more popular picks (like Intxausti and Navardauskas whom I left out on purpose), but going through the most popular picks, of the 20 most popular riders, 17 are in my team Here are my thoughts on some of the more popular picks this year as well as some of my less popular picks. Let's start with the latter:

I guess my most important rider this year is Fernando Gaviria. He's been on my team since my first draft and I never really looked back. We all know how big of a talent Gaviria possess and he's more than just a sprinter, capable of winning one-day-races harder than most other sprinters. I think he'll take a step up in the classics this year and if everything goes well he could score 1800-2000 points, but I recognize that he's a risky pick. I did consider Søren Kragh Andersen and Sam Oomen instead, which I also think would have been a decent strategy, but I pretty quickly decided that I wanted Gaviria and I couldn't find enough points to include either of Andersen or Oomen even though I think they'll both have good seasons.

Laurens De Plus is the third less popular rider on my team and he's probably the one I had the most doubts about. I think De Plus is a fairly big talent but I'm not really sure if he'll improve enough to be a good pick this year. Hopefully he'll deliver some results in one-day-races and in some week long races as well on a team with few climbers.

I'm really surprised to see that only 7 other picked Maximilian Walscheid. I think he's a very big sprinting talent and I think he'll have a good season despite his limited abilities and being on a team with a few other sprinters. He reminds me of Kittel. A big powerhouse of a sprinter who has a hard time getting over hills but with a very high top end speed. I expect him to make some progress this year hopefully he'll deliver me 400-600 points.

Now to some of the more popular picks this season that I didn't include in my team.

I'm not sure if I missed something about Benat Intxausti or not, but I just don't see him coming back to any kind of decent level. He had three race days last year and DNF the two of them. Ramunas Navardauskas I considered but in the end left out. I don't think he'll get a lot of opportunities and he didn't sound particuarly optimistic in the interviews I read with him. The last of the top 20 most popular picks not in my team is David Gaudu who I also considered but actually quickly dismissed - in hindsight that might have been a mistake? I'm not really sure why I dismissed him so early as he does seem like a pretty good pick. I don't see him scoring more than 700 though, so I'm not too worried.

Danny Van Poppel is a rider I never considered, but he seems like a good pick I must admit. Of course he'll play second fiddle to Groenewegen and even be part of his lead out train from time to time but he'll surely get his own chances as well. Moving away from Sky that doesn't really focus on sprints seems to be a good move.

I'm not sure why Taylor Phinney is such a popular pick. He'll never return to a level close to his peak and honestly he's one of the worse riders on the World Tour now after his injury.

Pierre Latour is an interesting pick. I had him down on my shortlist for a while but deleted him again as I don't think he'll score a lot more points this year than last. He doesn't seem to climb well enough to do what he really wants and I just don't see him having a breakthough 2018 in terms of results. That said, his points tally could certainly increase, but if I wanted someone in his price range, I would have looked towards Søren Kragh Andersen or Sam Oomen instead.

Niki Terpstra I never considered and I don't know why actually. He seems like an epitome of a good cq-pick. If he scores as many points as he did in any season from 2012-2016, he'll be a good pick. With Boonen having retired, Terpstra might even get a bit more freedom as well. I don't think that he'll return to his 2014/2015 form but less could do as well.

Ian Stannard I don't like. Even though he could pretty easily double his score, his ceiling just seems so low and I don't like that. With Van Baarle and Moscon looking like Sky's classics leaders, Stannard likely won't get a lot of chances on his own. The same does for Jürgen Roelandts. He didn't look very good last season and at BMC it's everyone for Van Avermaet.

I gotta say that I'm a bit envy of those who picked Geraint Thomas. I never considered him but I think he could turn out to be one of the very good picks this season. He was climbing very well last season and if he hadn't crashed out of the Giro, who knows what he might have done there. Of course that's the big question mark with Thomas: Will he manage to stay on his bike? If he does, he could have a blast of a season. Much of the same can be said about Richie Porte who was perhaps the best climber last season. If he manages to stay on his bike, his potential is almost unlimited.

I think this could be a very interesting season as there are quite a few expensive riders across our teams and a lot will depend on how well they fare. Alejandro Valverde is fairly popular as is Peter Sagan. The former could be a good pick as he's back to his old calendar but the question is if he can come back to his old level as well. Sagan I don't see as a good pick for his game. He will have to score around 3000 points to be a good pick I think, and it's hard to imagine him doing that, especially with the Worlds route as hard as it is this year.

Ok, its my first time playing here and with no much knowledge of deep riders it was quite a challenge to make a competitive and easy to root for team. Also i had no time to search for zero point riders so i missed out benat and enger, who were obvious picks. Here is my team and some quick reasoning.Peter Sagan - 2296I simply love his riding style and personality (even a lot more now with cut hair) and also he gives my team some high floor and upside of 3,500-4k rider.Richie Porte - 1228Risky pick, but he should do well early in the season and i think it would be his year to win (or at least finish) TDF and then some. 2,5+ upside and another option to root against Sky.Lopez Moreno - 629Obvious pick and he is on his way to become my new favourite rider with Contador gone from sport. Love him a lot.Esteban Chavez - 505See above.David Gaudu - 352He can build on his fenomenal debut and score in 600-700 boundaries.Mark Cavendish - 257Boring and obvious.Bryan Coquard - 220Also obvious.Daniel Felipe Martinez, Neilson Powless - 217, 216.Another two youngsters with upside.Gianluca Brambilla - 195Change of team and possible GC points in Giro and lesser stage races. Love his style too. Obvious pick.Carlos Alberto Betancur - 159Love this guy and he also can lead Movi Giro squad. If he will be in top-10 in weak GC field he can already surpass his total from 2017.Kevin Rivera - 155Nice talent that can score points in lesser races.Alan Banaszek - 149Read that he will be sprint leader of CCC and rider with great talent, can be a breakout year from him.Peter Kennaugh - 137Switch from Sky team where he goes from a system-slave to a leader or co-leader in week races. Can't score less than in 2017.Mark Padun - 73I dont care about his score, just want to root for talented and young rider from my country. Fan pick.Sean De Bie - 57Switched to a Pro Conti team where he can be a leader and can score in little races with his wide range abilities.Szymon Sajnok - 18Signed with CCC, who will look to give home rider chances. Also cheap.Other pick: Giacomo Nizzolo, Heinrich Haussler, Tanel Kangert, Taylor Phinney, Moreno Moser, Lawson Craddock, Leopold Konig - obvious bounce back picks.Jasper Phillipsen, Matvey Mamykin, Andrea Guardini, Ian Garrison, Lars Van Den Berg, Jacopo Guarnieri, Marc Fournier - mix of young cheap talent and guys who switched team with more chanses to produce.

Riders whom i thought but didn't pick: Alejandro Valverde - upside is undeniable, but too much risk for such expensive guy.Moscon - too much risk in this case.

Good luck to everybody and i hope to enjoy the first year of watching whole year of cycling and playing this game!

Seems I have quite a popular team. No unique picks. These are some of my rarer riders:

FELLINE Fabio 736 6 picksA bit of a gamble. Already quite expensive but suffered from a parasite in the 2nd half of 2017 and didn't perform at all. Despite that he still scored higher in 2017 than in 2016. I really like his versatility and hope he can score 1000-1200.

BETTIOL Alberto 354 20 picksThe presence of Van Avermaet could be a problem for him, OTOH I feel BMC should allow him to score more than he did on Cannondale. Still young, and scored over 500 in 2016.

SENECHAL Florian 348 12 picksI expected him to be more popular, he's expensive but a big classics talent and I'm hoping he'll have a breakthrough at Quickstep.

MARTINEZ POVEDA Daniel Felipe 217 13 picksI wasn't too sure about this pick and still am not, in the end his results in the Italian fall and his age were the decider for me.

MINALI Riccardo 193 9 picksWas one of my first picks and really expected him to be more popular, he was a more certain pick for me than Senechal and Martinez. Very talented sprinter and also pretty much Astana's only sprinter which presents him with lots of opportunities.

TURGIS Anthony 131 16 picksI always want at least one Coupe de France sprinter on my team and he seemed an obvious candidate. Scored over 300 in 2016 and is still young.

JAKOBSEN Fabio 118 28 picksHugely talented sprinter, not sure how quickly he will adapt to pro level but Quickstep is a great team for young riders and I couldn't miss out on a potential first year breakthrough.

CONCI Nicola 59 4 picksKnew this would be my rarest pick, honestly it's just a gamble, good results in U23 but could go either way. I wish I had selected De Bie in his place, actually yesterday I found a screenshot of De Bie's CQ page on my phone, which was my way of "bookmarking" him. Clearly didn't work well

PANTANO GOMEZ Jarlinson (436): spent 2017 slaving for Berto, will now have a plethora of opportunities to race for himself.

GAUDU David (352): can easily double his points with the right schedule (no GTs).

SENECHAL Florian (348): don’t even remember picking him. Kind of a bet considering all the mouths to feed at Quick Step, but he’s a future stud.

MAS NICOLAU Enric (285): talent is there. Won’t lack opportunities.

KREUZIGER Roman (265): only 31 years old, with a chance to become an elite stage hunter.

CAVENDISH Mark (257): can’t see him score less than 600 points in an accident-free season.

COQUARD Bryan (220): arguably the easiest pick of the year.

FORMOLO Davide (217): new team will do wonders for him.

GARCIA CORTINA Ivan (165): faster than people think. He can score points in many different ways.

BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto (159): Roma, may 2017, Carlos Betancur gets his first career podium in a GT.

KENNAUGH Peter (137): just give him some second tier one week races and he’ll turn into profit by mid spring.

FERNANDEZ ANDUJAR Ruben (115): my last pick. Don’t really like him, but he was the only rider in that price range with some upside.

NAVARDAUSKAS Ramunas (77): will mainly serve as a helper but can easily score 300 points if healthy.

MAMYKIN Matvey (67): had him last year, hated him but can’t forget his late 2016 surge.

NIZZOLO Giacomo (66): you know.

HAUSSLER Heinrich (60): this is the kind of pick I promised myself I would never do again and yet I did it.

KANGERT Tanel (58): a solid 3/400 point rider in any healthy season.

DE BIE Sean (57): added him last minute, will be my man for belgian .1 races.

GANNA Filippo (42): heart over head. He’s got the engine to be a great rider.

GUARDINI Andrea (39): easier schedule, easier points.

CAPIOT Amaury (32): I’m bullish on him. Could even win a semiclassic.

ALBANESE Vincenzo (31): terrible rookie year, but he’s got panache. Will eventually blossom in a great one day racer.

FABBRO Matteo (30): never had a break as an u23. Could suprise.

MOSER Moreno (25): because why the f*ck not?

CRADDOCK Lawson (15): sometimes in late december I talked myself into picking Dombrowski’s heir.

KÖNIG Leopold (10): now or never for old Leo. I say it’s now.

INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA Beñat (0): not really confident he can be a pro again, but just in case he does…

Good summary. I think i had many of the same thoughts about some of these guys. I hope you and Skid are right about Cortina. I really want to see this guy race. I am also worried about missing out on Thomas. I was thinking maybe Henao instead but left all sky riders off in the end.